Christmas Where They Belong by Marion Lennox

Author:Marion Lennox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘IT SHOULD HAVE been ours.’ Julie stood in the midst of the devastation that was all that was left of Amina’s house, she glanced across at their intact home and she felt ill.

‘Fire doesn’t make sense,’ Rob told her, staring grimly round the ruin.

‘No. And I understand that it was your design that saved it. But Amina’s house was...a home.’

‘Our place will be a home again. If we rent it out to them, Amina will make it one. I suspect she’s been making homes in all sorts of places for a long time.’

‘I know. Home’s where the heart is,’ Julie said bleakly. ‘They all say it. If you only knew how much I hate that saying.’

‘We’re not here for self-pity, Jules,’ Rob said, hauling her up with a start. He sounded angry, and maybe justifiably. This was no time to wallow. ‘If it rains, then there’ll be little chance of finding anything. Let’s get to it.’ He handed her a pair of leather gloves and a shovel. ‘Watch your feet for anything hot. Sift in front of you before you put your feet down. Don’t go near anywhere that looks unstable.’

There wasn’t much that looked unstable. The house had collapsed in on itself. The roof was corrugated iron, but Rob must have been here before, because it had been hauled off site.

The bedroom. They could see the outline of the bay window.

‘You focus on either side of where the bed would have been,’ Rob told her. ‘I’m doing a general search.’

What a way to spend Christmas afternoon. Overdressed, hot, struggling to breathe with the wafts of smoke still in the air, her hair in spikes, covered by a towel, squatting, sifting through layer upon layer of warm ash...

She found the first tin almost immediately. It had melted—of course it had—but it had held enough of its shape to recognise it for what it was.

Who knew what was inside? There was no time now to try and open it. She set it aside and moved to the other side of where the bed would have been and kept on searching.

And was stopped in her tracks by a whoop.

She looked up and Rob was standing at the rear of the house, where the laundry would have been. He’d been shovelling.

‘Jules, come and see.’

She rose stiffly and made her way gingerly across the ruin.

It was a safe. Unmistakably it was a safe and it must be fireproof, judging by the fact that it looked intact, even its paintwork almost unscathed.

‘It must have been set in the floor,’ Rob said. ‘Look, it’s still in some sort of frame. But I can get it out.’

‘Do you think Amina knew it was there?’

‘Who knows? But we’ll take it next door. How goes the tin hunt?’

‘One down.’

‘Then let’s find the other.’ He grabbed her and gave her a hard unexpected hug. ‘See, good things can happen. I just hope there’s something inside that safe other than insurance papers.’

‘Insurance papers would be good.’

‘You and I both know that’s not important.

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